While wandering through Toys R Us today (as I do quite regularly), my attention was quickly grabbed by what appeared to be Transformers LEGO sets, something that had never been released before. But upon closer look I realized they weren’t LEGO sets after all, but rather KRE-O, a new brand of building blocks from Hasbro that’s taking on LEGO head-to-head. It even says in a shiny sticker on the boxes that it works with “other” building block systems. That’s right, the pieces are nearly identical to LEGO blocks.

I’m not sure how Hasbro can stay clear of a LEGO law suit for patent infringement as they’re so similar. The good news about Hasbro not using LEGO for their kits is that they’re less expensive this way. A KRE-O Bumblebee 335 piece kit was only $25, where as a similar specialty, movie-licensed LEGO kit would likely be $40-50. Likewise the massive 542 piece Optimus Prime KRE-O kit from Hasbro is only $59.99 – likely to have been $70-100 if it were LEGO branded. So, naturally, I bought several of the kits and will happily build them soon!

Check em out on Amazon here.